Napoli were held down in the Serie A title race as Balde Keita cancelled out MarekHamsik's second-half opener in less than three minutes to earn Lazio a 1-1 draw in Saturday's clash at the Stadio San Paolo.

Maurizio Sarri's men were aiming to get back onto the winning lane after losing 2-1 to the defending champions, Juventus last week. The hosts made a strong approach to the match as Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne tirelessly challenged Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti which brought him into action in the opening 45 minutes.

Pepe Reina has stated that Napoli is a better side without Gonzalo Higuain in the team.

He said that the sale of Higuain has allowed the club to strengthen various positions and this has made them become a much better side. He stated that they have a good manager in Maurizio Sarri and that the latter is constantly looking for ways to improve the team.

Napoli suffered a third consecutive defeat in all competitions and manager Sarri admitted that the club are making life difficult for themselves.

After an excellent start to the league campaign that saw them go toe-to-toe with Juventus in the last few games, a shock loss against Atalanta has seen results plummet since then. A 1-0 defeat against Atalanta would have been forgiven as a freak result, but Napoli showed signs of a much bigger hurt inside. The team lost 3-1 to Roma during the weekend and they followed this up with a shock 3-2 loss against Besiktas in the Champions League.

There are media reports that Italian club Napoli might be interested in signing Piotr Zielinski from Udinese.

The player who spent last season on loan to Empoli is said to interest a number of European clubs, especially Liverpool. Indeed there is not a day where the player is not linked to the English club, but so far there is no serious bid that has been made.

Napoli is believed to be offering the player a deal that is worth £114,000 a week. So far the player has not given any indication that he wants to leave Udinese, but it is believed that the club will be selling the Poland international for the right amount.

Napoli are in talks with Italian outfit Empoli to sign midfielder Piotr Zielinski to replace Jordan Henderson, according to reports in Italy.

Napoli look to use the Poland international to prop up their midfield ahead of the coming season as they hope to close in on Juventus after losing to them in second place last season. Piotr Zielinski is a talented player who will line up alongside Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandowski at Euro 2016 in France.

Napoli had a tough end to the season as they fell short of Juventus in the final furlongs. This summer they will have to retain their main men, as Gonzalo Higuain, Kalidou Koulibaly and Elseid Hysaj have all been linked with moves away. Whilst the Partenopei have been linked with players, the selection may surprise some as they are not all household names.

Pitor Ziellinski: Napoli President, Aurelio De Laurentiis has already claimed that he has reached an agreement with Udinese for their Polish attacking midfielder. According to Premium Sport, the 22-year old will cost 15 million Euro but while the club have agreed a fee it is rumoured that the player himself is holding out to see if any more offers come in.

Italian giant, Napoli claim they can only give out their star centre forward, Gonzalo higuain, to another club if the €94m buyout clause is met. News outlet Gazzetta dello Sport claim the Serie A outfit are desperate to keep the goal ace, after a stellar season where he helped the club reach second place in the domestic league, just behind Juventus.

Higuain has become one of Europe's most coveted players after dazzling in the Italian top tier this season.